Industrial controllers and their associated control programming are central to the operation of modern industrial automation systems. These controllers interact with field devices on the plant floor to carry out controlled processes relating to such objectives as manufacture of a product, material handling, batch processing, waste water treatment, and other such processes. Industrial controllers store and execute user-defined control programs to effect decision-making in connection with the controlled process. Such programs can include, but are not limited to, ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, structured text, or other such platforms.
The various control systems that make up an enterprise are sometimes collectively managed by a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), which monitors real-time data from the plant floor and issues control management instructions in view of higher level business considerations, such as order management, resource management, inventory, scheduling, etc. In an enterprise comprising multiple production areas, or multiple geographically diverse facilities, the MES system may comprise multiple MES applications corresponding to the respective areas or facilities.
Plant floor operations, including control of industrial processes by the industrial controllers described above, represent one component of a larger business enterprise. On a higher level, business operations such as financial analysis, marketing, sales, order management, long term business planning, resource management, inventory management, and the like collectively represent another element of the enterprise. Many organizations employ an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system or similar business system to correlate and manage these business level functions in a cohesive manner.
Although business level and plant floor level operations are related to and dependent upon one another, the two levels are often only loosely integrated, with slow (e.g., non-real-time, non-automated) information exchange between the two. Moreover, efforts to integrate higher level business systems with plant-side control can be hindered by the need for specialized programming code, necessitating involvement of experienced programmers or IT personnel who may have limited understanding of both the business-side and plant-side operations compared with management or factory personnel.
The above-described deficiencies of today's industrial control and business systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.